When Mitzie and I thought about starting our business venture together over 2 years ago, I never dreamed it would grow as fast as it did or we would look at each other at least once a week and say “This is ours!” Our little corner of Occoquan is one of my favorite places on the planet. I love my business partner. God could not have put two more goofy, yet fun people together to share joy, laughter and his word with the world.
I love our shop, but…..
Here’s the but, I am not a creative person. Everyone who reads this and knows me, will adamantly disagree. I can come up with a million and one different ways to do something. I can create a vision in my head that just seems so perfect I can’t wait to get started on it. But once I begin, I am stuck. It doesn’t look like my vision.
Case in point, and I wish I had pictures to get my point across, but here goes. We had this beautiful chest of drawers. Sweet lines...and the vision I had for it was so simple, delicate and the first person who saw it was gonna beg us to deliver it that day. My vision was of a soft buttery yellow and a simple white transfer on the front. I would adorn it with glass knobs for that extra touch of elegance. Sounds beautiful doesn’t it?
Well…….
First coat of Fusion Mineral Paint in Buttermilk painted. I step back and look. I stepped further back and looked. I stepped even further back, picked up my phone and called Mitzie. “It looks like a stick of butter” I declare. After Mitzie stops laughing I send her over a couple of pictures. As supportive as always she tells me it looks fine but if you don’t like it, what else would you do to it? Rule number one, never ask me what else would I do to anything after I have started. My vision is crushed. I have NO IDEA what else I would do!
The stick of butter sat in my living room for weeks. Everyday I walked by this thing and glared at it. How could it crush my beautiful vision? What else could I do to this thing to make someone want to walk in the door and beg us to deliver that day? Then one day it hit me. I grabbed more Fusion paints and just started layering it. A little bit of Renfrew here, a little bit of Seaside there. Heck, throw in some Cranberry for good measure. Eventually it started coming to life. My stick of butter now looked like beautiful blue waves that lapped the shores at sunset on some faraway exotic island.
Then something else happened…...An Iron Orchid Designs transfer yelled at me one day in the shop. It was just the added element I needed to finish.
So what had once been a vision of soft buttery goodness was now transformed into a beachy piece of awesomeness. 
So back to my lack of creativity. We have people tell us all the time they don’t have a creative bone in their body. They take our workshops and those who declare to have the least amount of talent inevitably create the most stunning piece. I am a true believer that everyone has some artistic talent and skill. You may have colored outside the lines as a kid and someone told you that wasn’t the right way, so you conformed and tucked away that creativity. My supposed lack of creativity stems from that I know. But, I bucked the system and attempted to look outside the box as I got older. My husband likes to tease me and say I don’t even know what a box is, but I can assure you, I know what boxes are used for - they are used to deliver the things I need to spark my inner creativity! It kicks in eventually and yours will too.
Always color outside the lines! Life is too short!
Denise
PS: The chest of drawers was brought into the shop and sold within the week. They didn’t beg for it to be delivered that day. But they did get it a couple of days later :-)
These are the colors I used on the piece
